Not missing Easter

With Easter just a few weeks away, what a wonderful opportunity we each have to contemplate all that has been done for us by the Lord. But unfortunately, the special meaning of Easter can be surprisingly easy to miss.

As a father of four young boys, I frequently get to watch what happens when my children “miss” what they should see. Invariably when we are trying to get out the door for school, a birthday party or some sporting event, one of the little fellas is missing something: a shoe, a snack, a glove. More often than not, after several tense minutes of scurrying around, looking here, there and everywhere, someone looks straight down, and we find the missing object right in front of us all.

We were looking, but not really seeing. It’s no big deal if the thing we miss is a soccer ball, but pretty important if it is the most transformational event in all of human history.

Christians believe that the events of Holy Week, starting with the Palm Sunday entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, progressing through His arrest, trial and Good Friday crucifixion, and culminating in His Easter Sunday resurrection, are absolutely central to human life, now and into eternity. But for myself and many others I know, growing up in a Christian church or Christian family did not automatically lead to understanding and personally receiving the blessing of Easter. In fact, strange as it might seem, I am not sure I could have explained what Jesus’ death and resurrection had to do with me personally until my young adult years.

That’s why I love to meditate on 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he (God) made him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” The whole reason God’s own Son, fully human and fully God, had to be put to death on a cross and raised up to new life is so that he could be a substitute for each one of us who will look to him in faith.

Because he was fully human, he could represent us, and because he was fully God, his sacrifice was worth an infinite amount of righteousness, available to be credited to all believers. This does not just reset us from fallen sinners to neutral but actually causes us to be seen by God as perfectly righteous ones in His sight.

With the gift of this exalted status, we then have power to begin to live resurrected lives, delighting in the love of our Savior, and walking with him each day, and in eternity. Have a very Happy Easter!